I was so blessed by the mom of a preschooler who posted on Facebook this picture of her son in the very front row of his preschool concert, sitting on his bottom refusing to sing a note. Apparently he had warned his mom, “If you come to my concert then I am sitting down and read more…

I received the story below from a local mom. She shared her dilemma of when to intervene with her special needs son and when to step back and observe. What would you have done? Marianne, I was hoping that you could tell me what you would have done in this situation. I have a five-year-old read more…

I’ll never forget the advice I heard from a mom of teens when all four of my boys were not even in school yet. She told me, “Trust me, you don’t want your kids to be popular.” At first this surprised me. Of course I wanted other kids to like my boys. I sure liked read more…

Stop Letting School Sabotage Your Relationship with Your Child I’m not sure how many times I have said this, but the most important part of parenting is the relationship we have with our kids. Is it honest? Loving? Respectful? Joy-filled? Secure? If it is, then parenting will be much easier–maybe even fun! But I read more…

Warning: Rant Ahead! Did you know that January is National Preschool Freak-Out Month? Seriously, January is the month that many preschools begin registering kids for the fall. That means that FIRST TIME PARENTS might not have a clue that in the dead of winter they need to be making plans for the end of summer. read more…

Last week I wrote about the parental power of scooping up an out of control child and carrying them to a car rather than yelling at them to obey you and walk. A couple moms asked me to discuss the very real scenario where the child is too big to be carried. What then? The reality read more…

As moms we get so excited over our child’s first words and then their first sentences. But it is not too terribly long before they use their new-found powers to communicate against us with proclamations of “No” and challenges of our requests and announcements of their own ideas. At age three, I remember my oldest read more…

Without question, the number one piece of parenting advice I received early on was that my kids were created with unique temperaments. At that time, I had a laid back one year old and a strong willed two year old. Once I realized that the God of the universe actually designed their personalities, I was read more…

This past August I put my first-born son on the school bus at 6:37 in the morning on his way to high school. I swear it was just a few years ago that I stood on the same corner and put him on the school bus for kindergarten. A similar transition except that time he read more…